Filmmaking
Hey guys, sorry I didn’t post a vlog today. Among other things, I’ve been preoccupied with planning an unofficial music video for my favorite Vampire Weekend song. I’m actually making a really big effort, possibly thinking about renting a RED One, hiring a DP, etc. Should be a lot of fun.
In other news, I spent a good part of yesterday and today setting up a new forum. There are already lots of pretty good filmmaking forums out there (a la IndieTalk and DVXuser), but ours is a “movie-making” forum. It’s also free, unlike a couple other resources.
We’re also giving you guys permission to upload videos with zero file size limitations. Share your work with others, get feedback on a project. Embed a video from any site on the internet or click on “manage attachments” and upload your video (in any format) after creating a new topic. We’re paying for the web space, so feel free to abuse it.
There aren’t many forum categories yet, but I’ll be adding them as they’re needed. Come and say hello!
Filed under: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Awards, Tech Stuff, Steven Spielberg
It's the next evolutionary step. We had Fred Astaire trying to sell us vacuums and John Wayne trying to sell us beer after they were dead. Will we soon have computer-generated actors who were never real people in the first place? An article in the L.A. Times shines a light on a recent debate surrounding the performance captured acting used in James Cameron's Avatar. The filmmaker received nine Oscar nominations for his part animation and part live-action film, but none of them include a nod to his cast. There have been no major critic's awards, no guild prize and according to interviews with several of the other Oscar nominees, what appears to be no respect for Cameron's revolutionary technology which combines real actors with computer-generated animation.
Jeff Bridges, who received an Oscar nom for best actor in Crazy Heart, put a bit of a dystopian spin on the subject. "I'm sure they could do it now if they wanted. Actors will kind of be a thing of the past," Bridges told The Times. "We'll be turned into combinations. A director will be able to say, 'I want 60% Clooney; give me 10% Bridges; and throw some Charles Bronson in there.' They'll come up with a new guy who will look like nobody who has ever lived and that person or thing will be huge," he said.
Continue reading Discuss: Is Performance Captured Acting Really Acting?
Hello everybody! Happy Monday Morning once again. No video blog today. Instead here’s the final cut of our little four-day short film.
Four days due to scheduling; Francesca just started a play, Stephen has work every day but Sunday, and like any kid Aaliyah goes to grammar school. Sean somehow managed to pull all the elements together two days before shooting; prior to that, we were in doubt as to whether or not we’d even have a script to shoot with.
Hmm. About that diner/cafe scene. We had a place picked out beforehand, a real diner-type place, indoors and everything. The owner gave us permission, shrugged that Sunday afternoons were usually quiet. Good for audio. But we scheduled the shoot on Superbowl Sunday. At 12:30 on the afternoon of the shoot (when we guesstimated the sun would be just right), to our horror the place was packed. Stuffed. It was like trying to shoot a scene in a sardine can, if sardines could shout and laugh.
The five of us—Stephen, Francesca, Sean, Anna, and I—loitered the parking lot and brainstormed another location. We did have a hotel plaza set aside, but that felt too uncertain. So when Anna suggested her college, off we went. If anybody asked, we were making a student film. An hour-and-a-half later we started shooting. The sun had moved and we were well behind schedule. Here’s where those HMIs, or some variety of 1,000+ watt lights, would have come in handy…if we had them.
Sean and I started with the great idea of employing high wattage lights to balance out the contrast of natural sunlight, which got me real excited. Then we found out they were too costly to rent. So we used one reflector when we could; but with Sean operating the Merlin and me doing everything else, it was a question of who would be available to hold the darn thing. This is the Achille’s Heel of a two-man crew.
The satisfactory shots are the ones where we exerted the most control. The least satisfactory shots were done guerrilla style. That’s not a strike against the style, but when mixed with shots that feel more “designed” it tends look inconsistent. The alternative would have been to shoot everything in a Paul Greengrass/shallow depth-of-field style (bokake meets Bourne Ultimatum-type montage editing) and grade the colors into a processed, oversaturated look—which is fine and adapts well to guerrilla shooting. But I really wanted that minimal, all-natural appearance.
All said and done, I think we did a solid job under the limitations. Quite a miniature learning experience for one week. Hope you all enjoy the final cut, and well, I’m looking forward to our next project…whatever that may be.
Hey everyone. Been pretty busy with lots of things lately, so I didn’t have time to shoot a normal vlog. Instead, here’s a video from when I visited Lainey a few days ago and took some pictures of her new kitty, Hemlock.
In movie-making related things, this Sunday I’m supposed to shoot part of a movie for a friend of Anna’s. The script is an incredibly long 63 pages, but don’t get your hopes up for a feature film. It’s going to be shot very quickly, no lighting or blocking.
I recently purchased GPU Decoder for Adobe Premiere. Editing could not be any easier, except for when @brucesharpe releases PluralEyes for Premiere. GPU Decoder lets you simply drop your H.264 HDSLR footage (straight from the camera) onto the timeline so you can start editing without pre-rendering or having to do any conversions. Granted, you’ll need an NVIDIA card that supports CUDA and PureVideo HD 2. It’s a great workflow.
Regularly scheduled content will resume next week. Hopefully. What have you guys been up to?
Filed under: Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, Tech Stuff, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
In case you hadn't heard, 3D films make a lot of money, and Hollywood won't rest until everything is in 3D whether the film is enhanced by it or not. We can no longer feign surprise at "Really? In 3D?" anymore. Except maybe this one last time: Breaking Dawn, the final installment (or installments, if it's split into two films) of The Twilight Saga, may be filmed in 3D. It's obvious why. You don't even need me to tell you why Twilight fans might want to see it in 3D. It's not for the scenery of Forks, Washington. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Summit Entertainment is seriously contemplating whether or not Twilight has made them enough money, or if they could earn more by making Edward and Bella's love a truly immersive experience. Considering this is the book where they finally get it on (and Edward breaks their bed, if I remember correctly), the implications of that are very unsettling. But hey, think of Taylor Lautner's rippling abs! Surely that's enough to offset Reneseeme's birth in full and bloody 3D.
Summit will reportedly decide on whether or not to go 3D by the end of the month. THR notes that any Breaking Dawn plans could still be derailed by Stephanie Meyer, who has an ironclad contract binding her to approve everything from casting to director. It's not clear whether or not that includes filming format, but even if it didn't, I don't think Summit would risk her disapproval. She commands an army, and if she doesn't want a 3D movie, the fans won't either. But what if the fans do want it? I've seen the lines at ComicCon for a three-dimensional glimpse of the cast. Couldn't the film sell under the same idea?
Wow, we actually pulled it off. We successfully made an entire short film in 1 week flat. When I first heard about this contest, I knew I had to participate. It took a little convincing of Peter, but eventually we sat down and came up with a story together.
We shot the ending (as well as the Steadicam Merlin shot of the smoking trunk) the day this was due. Which pretty much gave us zero time to edit. Peter brought his portable hard drive and edited on my PC while I laid on my bed, occasionally talking to Marc Chester on the phone, going over the score.
My sister, Amy, made most of the skeleton, namely the skull. She's a ceramics student and has some pretty impressive work. She squeezed making this skull into her schedule by pulling an all-nighter the day before we needed it for a scene. It's made entirely of porcelain. I intend to fire the skull and jaw (at least) so I can keep it forever.
The actual "final cut" of the short film was nearly 5 minutes, but because of the strict rules of the contest, we were forced to cut out quite a bit. And because everything was coming down to the last second, some of it was a bit rushed. If the rules allow, Peter will most likely re-post The Funeral Date as a Director's Cut or something here on TZ. Relatively speaking, I think it actually turned out really well. And come to think of it, this was actually the biggest project we've ever taken on. It felt absolutely amazing. To wake up at 6am, dig graves, inhale homemade toxic ammonium nitrate smoke bombs, scramble to cast an actor at the last possible second. Most of the production days were very long and tiring. But it was the absolute best kind of tired, very satisfying.
Filmmaking is absolutely, hands down, a collaborative medium. I know we make it look easy (kidding, kidding) but really, there was quite a few people involved. Lily and Sandra's house was actually 4 different locations. The backyard was my own. Lily's bedroom was Anna's. We drove to LA to get the shots of Sandra's room at Francesca's apartment. The front of the house was my friend Sean Kao's. He was nice enough to give us free access to his house while no one was home. The truck and the guy who bought the trunk is the neighbor of my aunt, where we shot the garage sale scene. William Mas let us use his truck.
I was introduced to Marc, the guy who miraculously composed all of the music for the short in just a few hours on the last day, by an old friend from high school, Nikki. She was the senior clarinet section leader while I was a little freshman in marching band. I looked her up on Facebook and asked if she knew anyone who would be interested in composing for us. Oddly enough, Marc and Anna had taken an acting class together a couple years back. What a small world.
Sometimes, with enough effort, the stars just seem to align and everything works out. Oh how we struggled to find a little girl to play Lily. But then I posted a listing on NowCasting and there she was. The entire short film was almost ruined because the weather report said it would be raining on the one morning we had left to shoot the garage sale scene. We got up extra early that day and somehow the sun was out, shining bright as can be.
So, The Funeral Date may have flaws. Peter won't be satisfied with it until a month's time passes and he looks back at it. He'll watch it again and say, "That actually wasn't too bad." I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so many friends who are willing to work with us on what it is we love doing. Thank you. I mean it with all my heart.
And now... time to go collapse in bed and sleep until noon.
Having to make a few compromises for the Canon/Vimeo Beyond The Still contest, but everything is getting done and turning out pretty well.
I just realized 'BTS' is actually the initials of the contest, so for these little behind-the-scenes videos we can just call it BTS: BTS.
Anyway, sorry to keep this short, I'm filling in for Peter cause, well, he's directing and the little girl is going to be here at 9:30am and there's still lots and lots to do today. So, enjoy!
We've been really busy all week planning our entry for the Canon/Vimeo Beyond The Still contest and tonight we actually started production.
I actually think this is one of the most complex shoots we've done. We had to cast actors, find multiple locations, make and find a whole lot of props. We even got someone to compose music for us. I don't want to give away too much of what we're doing for the contest, but day two of production will be this Sunday, hopefully in a small diner. Then, we have two more days of shooting into next week, all on top of a job this weekend and possibly another job next week.
To everyone who's been asking, I am fully recovered from my cold now. I appreciate knowing that I'm loved 
Wish us luck that everything goes smoothly, we still haven't heard back from the owner of the diner and we've yet to secure a flatbed truck.
Filed under: Sony, Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Home Entertainment
Someone really has to explain this addiction to 3D. Years ago, it was a novelty that no one took seriously. Random images would fly towards viewers eyes, and a squeal or two would escape, but no one wanted to wear those annoying glasses all the time. It was a nice little cinematic trinket used for the random feature. Now, however, it's everywhere. And not just everywhere like everyone is making 3D movies, but everything is getting converted to 3D, whether it be Harry Potter and Clash of the Titans, or Sony's old library.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Sony is looking to sell Blu-rays with 3D versions of its catalogue in the next year. Joe Nakata, a deputy general manager in Sony's 3D unit says: "We'll probably be able to start next fiscal year, if we can convert them into 3D with good effects." Conversion companies are popping up all over the place to process these films into new 3D monsters, and PS3 is looking to get into 3D gaming in the near future.
Continue reading Sony Converts Old Movies to 3D for Blu-ray - When Will it Stop?
I took NyQuil, so I'm a bit out of it right now, but I'll do my best to make this cohesive.
I just want to say that I'm very grateful for this community. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We may not be as popular as Philip Bloom or Wong Fu, but that's not what we're about. I like to think of us as this little niche of a niche. We're filmmakers struggling to make it in the filmmaking world.
It isn't easy keeping this site up, as I'm sure you realize. And it's becoming even more cumbersome the more we work at making all this our full-time job. But I really like the idea of Take Zer0 growing as we grow. Our three year anniversary is coming up in a few months. Maybe we'll do something fun. We need more of a community aspect again. We need to bring back the forum, get more people vlogging with us, shoot more short films.
I don't know where I'm going with all this. My vlog was about our Steadicam Merlin. I recently realized that ours wasn't perfectly balanced so I did some research, re-read the manual, and realized that our Merlin wasn't actually even close to being properly balanced. Now it is. And it feels like having a new toy again. I want to go out and shoot another bokake, put it to good use in a music video. Darn this stupid cold.
